Podcast Summary: The New Yorker Radio Hour

Episode: Noah Baumbach on “Jay Kelly,” His New Movie with George Clooney

Date: December 2, 2025
Host: David Remnick
Guest: Noah Baumbach (Filmmaker)
Interviewer: Susan Morrison (New Yorker staff)

Overview

This episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour features filmmaker Noah Baumbach in conversation with Susan Morrison at the New Yorker Festival, focusing on his new film "Jay Kelly," starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler. The dialogue traces Baumbach’s creative journey, his shifting relationship to cinema, and the existential threads running through his work. They discuss returning to personal themes, the challenge of making movies after success, and the playful as well as profound ways in which identity is explored on and off-screen.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Rediscovering a Love for Filmmaking

• Baumbach’s Disenchantment and Renewal
  • Baumbach explains he fell out of love with filmmaking during the grueling shoot for "White Noise" (00:56), particularly amid the difficulties of filming during COVID.
  • Writing "Jay Kelly" coincided with co-writing "Barbie," where witnessing Greta Gerwig's directorial energy reignited his own passion for movies.
  • Quote:
    • “It was somewhere on a sort of deserted highway in Ohio at about 4am with a rain machine shooting white noise that I think I felt like, oh, God, I don't know that I like doing this.” – Noah Baumbach (02:56)
  • He reflects on the need to periodically check in with oneself and one’s motivations—"am I doing this only because I do it?"

2. Artistic Maturity and Meta-Reflection

• Themes of Endings and Mortality

  • The film opens with the line "We're coming to the end," reflecting both the protagonist’s and Baumbach’s own contemplation of endings, maturity, and mortality (05:28).
  • The narrative explores whether continued creation is informed by love or habit as Baumbach reconciles creative fulfillment with personal life.

• Quote:

  • “It's good in a way too, to check back in with yourself, because I think it's something that I dreamt of doing. It's something I always wanted to do. And, you know, I've been doing it for a long time now.” – Noah Baumbach (03:54)

3. The Recurrence of “First Lines” as Thematic Signposts

• Setting the Movie’s Tone from the Opening
  • Morrison observes a pattern in Baumbach's films where the first line telegraphs the overall theme. Baumbach claims to be mostly unconscious of this, suggesting such metaphors arise instinctively. (06:42–08:38)
  • Quote:
    • “You always kind of want to tell the story of the movie in the beginning of a movie... a kind of representation of what the rest of the movie, Jay's journey, is going to be.” – Noah Baumbach (07:40)

4. Autobiography, Success, and Identity

• Projecting Personal Experiences onto Characters
  • Baumbach’s earlier characters are often defined by their failures or frustrations, while Jay Kelly is a wildly successful actor. Yet, regardless of success or failure, both are forms of not confronting one’s true self (09:40).
  • He notes the perils of defining oneself through external markers—success is just another mask, not a resolution.
  • Quote:
    • “Defining yourself by your own success is sort of the same challenge. Because it's just another way of not knowing who you are, not looking at where you really are and where you, you know.” – Noah Baumbach (10:27)

5. Success, Ambition, and the Universal “Gap”

• Is Contentment Possible?
  • Morrison asks if there's a "medium" level of success that allows for happiness. Baumbach believes the gap between who we are and who we want to be is unclosable—it’s a human constant (13:01).
  • Quote:
    • “No, because we probably just want more. I think no matter what, there's a gap, you know, no one's ever going to close that gap.” – Noah Baumbach (13:01)

6. Satire and Hollywood Comedy

• Insider Gags and the “Cheesecake” Rider
  • "Jay Kelly" blends sharp Hollywood satire with deeper themes. A recurring gag about a cheesecake always waiting for the protagonist (due to an outdated preference) morphs into a metaphor for stuck identities and the repetition of patterns (18:43–20:06).
  • Quote:
    • “Are we the person who said it then? Are we? You know, and these things, like this rider idea too, they get repeated. So it is sort of like, well, I wanted this one time years ago and I'm still getting it, you know, and it kind of can keep you from advancing or changing in your life...” – Noah Baumbach (18:27–20:06)

7. Self-Narration and Repetitive Stories

• How Dialogue and Self-Told Stories Shape Identity

  • Baumbach notes his affinity for repeating dialogue and family stories as a cinematic technique, mimicking how people reinforce or reassess their identities through shared narratives (21:12–22:14).

• Quote:

  • “How language, the way we talk or the way the characters talk, becomes self-defining too, and can they break those patterns?... how people's patterns can change over the course of a movie and how that is also a way of discovering character…” – Noah Baumbach (21:12–22:14)

8. Jay Kelly’s Core Realization

• Accepting One’s Only Life
  • The crux of "Jay Kelly": the character gradually recognizes that the story he tells himself—justifying compromise or ambition—is wearing thin. The central, even “shocking” realization is that this life is all there is, and every choice counts (22:23).
  • Quote:
    • “This is the only one he's gonna get. This is the only, this is the only version of his life. And these decisions are real decisions and they've had real consequences and they're real.” – Noah Baumbach (22:23)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• Disenchantment with Filmmaking:
  • “I felt like, oh, God, I don't know that I like doing this.” — Noah Baumbach (02:56)
• On Whether He Has a ‘Rider’:
  • “No, I don't have... For him, this sort of notion... there's a cheesecake as part of like the assortment of things... and he says, I don't like cheesecake. How. Why is this always here?” — Noah Baumbach (18:47)
• On Patterns in Dialogue:
  • “What people say is not what they're saying. And I often write a lot of extraneous stuff that isn't even really meant to be focused on. It's like musical, just sounds and things, but... how people's patterns can change over the course of a movie and how that is also a way of discovering character.” — Noah Baumbach (21:12–22:14)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:29 – Baumbach discusses falling out and back in love with filmmaking.
• 05:28 – The film’s opening line and themes of endings.
• 06:42 – The significance of opening lines in Baumbach’s films.
• 09:40 – Success, failure, and defining oneself.
• 13:01 – The unclosable gap between self-perception and reality.
• 18:27 – Hollywood details: the cheesecake gag and its metaphorical importance.
• 21:12 – Dialogue as a tool for characterization and the importance of repeated stories.
• 22:23 – Jay Kelly’s journey to understanding his one and only life.

Closing

The conversation offers an insightful, self-reflective look at Noah Baumbach’s artistic evolution, using “Jay Kelly” as a case study in confronting identity, the creative process, and the perpetual gap between experience and self-conception. Baumbach’s candor, humor, and philosophical bent permeate the exchange, making it both an engaging listen for cinephiles and a thoughtful meditation on modern artistic life.